A nominative fallacy

[larryhammer]

So why do we name inanimate objects? Why certain objects only? And why do some of us name things more than others? Questions worthy of tabouli, if she ever set her mind to it. I'm not up for it, though -- aside from noting that the more mobile or complex a thing, the more likely it gets a name. The semblance of animate. Massive engineworks, I understand the impulse. A chair or microwave, not so much, nor a TV. Possibly a car, though I'm personally dubious (says the co-driver of Rockhopper, with a penguin mascot on the dash). A computer, yes -- about the only personal possession I comfortably and instinctively name.

My replacement laptop is Dânadariel (accessorized with hard drive Magic Wand and flash drives Glitter and Sparkle). Because a fairy name seemed right. The stolen one was Buttercup, after my favorite Powerpuff Girl. The desktop before that was Fred, as all previous computers -- but those were all dubbed before I decided to call my muse that, and it wouldn't Do to be confusing.

What objects in your life have names?

---L.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

With horrible name dyslexia, I do not, ever, name inanimate objects. The people in my life tend to get called by generic noun names because my brain will switch names on me. (This included when I was dating the spouse, but as he is also left handed and dyslexic, we agreed early on that neither of us would invest any emotional reaction into the wrong name issuing forth.) Dog! Daughter! Spouse! Son! Niece! Car! House! And people tend to be 'he' and 'she' which is usually clear from context with the other right-brainers in the house, and annoying to the son, who is right handed and thus isn't brain-wired the same way.

I made a deal with my friends back in the seventies that I was not expected to remember the names of their various objects, including the one who named all her pens. However I could and did remember names of personal physical-geography landmarks, I don't know why. Maybe because the object also had an event attached?

[larryhammer]

Named her pens? Are we talking fountain or ball-point?

---L.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I don't remember--my eyes tended to glaze over when she went on about hre various pens and their personalities (o.e. what kinds of stories they could only write) and whether they were he or she...I can remember sitting there with my polite-face on, wondering inside why she wasn't writing instead of making dolls of her pens, but I don't remember what she said.

I do remember her saying that she was careful to use different colors of ink so people would know which pen wrote which story, and me thinking, yeah, but we all have to, like, get published first, before we can make thinngs easier for future biographers.